On September 27, 1831, Ioannis Capodistrias, first Governor of a free Greece, was assassinated in Nafplion.
Born in Corfu in 1776 he played a significant part in favour of the Greek interests firstly as minister of the Septinsular Republic (i.e. of the seven Ionian Islands) and subsequently as (joint) Foreign Minister of Russia under tsar Alexander I. From 1822 to 1827 he lived in Geneva where he applied himself to supporting the Greek Revolution diplomatically and financially.
As Governor, from January 1828 to the day of his death, Capodistrias founded the public administration, army, education, justice, and economy of Greece from scratch. He built on his diplomatic experience in favour of a decent regulation of the borders of Greece. During his term as Governor the independence of Greece was recognised in the Protocol of London of February 3, 1830.
He was a reverent Orthodox Christian and always kept an icon of BVM on his desk. He was buried in the Holy Monastery of BVM Platytera (i.e. “more spacious than the heavens” in Greek) in Corfu.
Photo: L. M. Schwanthaler, The founding of the Panhellenion [i.e. a 27-member-strong advisory body which replaced the legislative body as one of the terms Capodistrias set to assume the governorship of the new country] by Ioannis Capodistrias, Parliament of the Hellenes.
